Anthony Bell
Anthony Bell was a bank clerk in Canada and the father of a large family. A doctor who had known him for more than twenty years described him as upright and blameless. Yet Bell became haunted by the fixed idea that he had bought poison from the doctor's shop and used it to kill someone. He would beg to be told the date of this imaginary purchase, become deeply agitated, lose sleep, accuse himself of murder, and sink into despair. At the bank, however, he still kept his books perfectly, without the smallest mistake, and often said that a being inside him made him keep them in strict order. He committed suicide on February 28, 1865, and was later called in Paris at the request of a friend.
The medium’s hand begins writing...
Anthony BellWhat do you want with me?
Anthony BellTo question me?
Anthony BellIt is unnecessary.
Anthony BellI am ready to confess everything.
MediumWe don't want to trouble you with indiscreet questions.
MediumWe only want to know your condition in the spirit world and whether we can help you.
Anthony BellAh...
Anthony BellIf you could, how thankful I would be.
Anthony BellI am horrified by my crime.
Anthony BellAnd I am dreadfully unhappy.
MediumI trust our prayers will soften your suffering.
MediumYou seem to us to be on the right road, because you repent.
MediumRepentance is the beginning of spiritual restoration.
MediumGod, whose mercy is endless, always takes pity on the wrongdoer who repents.
The group prayed for him using the prayer for those who had committed suicide from The Gospel According to Spiritism, and then asked him what crime he meant.
MediumWill you now tell us what crime you were speaking of?
MediumThat confession, made humbly, will count in your favor.
Anthony BellLet me first thank you for the hope you have given me.
Anthony BellLong ago, alas, I lived in a town whose walls were washed by the Mediterranean.
Anthony BellI loved a beautiful girl who returned my love.
Anthony BellBut I was poor.
Anthony BellAnd her family rejected me.
Anthony BellShe told me she was about to marry the son of a merchant whose trade reached beyond the two seas.
Anthony BellAnd I was cast aside.
Anthony BellMaddened with grief, I decided to kill myself after I had satisfied my revenge by murdering the man I hated.
Anthony BellViolence was hateful to me.
Anthony BellI trembled at the thought of the crime I meant to commit.
Anthony BellBut my jealousy won.
Anthony BellOn the evening before the marriage that was to give him my beloved, he died of poison that I gave him.
Anthony BellIt seemed to me like an easier revenge.
Anthony BellThat is why the memories that haunted my last life were there.
Anthony BellYes.
Anthony BellI had already lived.
Anthony BellAnd I must live again.
Anthony BellO my God...
Anthony BellTake pity on my weakness and my tears.
MediumWe deeply regret the mistake that delayed your progress.
MediumBut you may be sure that, since you repent, God will have mercy on you.
MediumPlease tell us, did you carry out the suicide you had planned in that former life?
Anthony BellNo.
Anthony BellI confess, to my shame, that hope rose in my heart.
Anthony BellI wanted to enjoy the result of my crime.
Anthony BellBut my remorse gave me away.
Anthony BellI paid for one moment of madness with the most terrible punishment.
Anthony BellI was hanged.
MediumIn your last existence, did you have any awareness of that evil act?
Anthony BellOnly in the last years of that life.
Anthony BellI will explain.
Anthony BellI was naturally well-intentioned.
Anthony BellAnd after I had gone through, in the spirit world, like all murderers, the torture of seeing my victim endlessly, following me like living remorse...
Anthony BellI was freed from it, after many long years, by my prayers and repentance.
Anthony BellI then began a new life on Earth, my last one.
Anthony BellI lived it peacefully and timidly.
Anthony BellI had a vague feeling of my weakness and of my former fault, and I had kept a hidden memory of it.
Anthony BellBut the father of my victim, an obsessing and vengeful spirit, had little difficulty in gaining control over me.
Anthony BellIn my mind, as in a magic mirror, he brought back the memory of the past.
Anthony BellUnder his influence, and then under the influence of the guide watching over me, I was by turns the poisoner and the father of a family earning bread for his children by honest work.
Anthony BellThe hidden action of that obsessing spirit drove me into suicide.
Anthony BellMy guilt is great.
Anthony BellBut less than it would have been if I had acted entirely by my own will.
Anthony BellThose who kill themselves in my condition, too weak to resist obsessing spirits, are less guilty and less punished than those who take their own life by their own choice alone.
Anthony BellPray with me for the spirit who influenced me so disastrously.
Anthony BellMay he renounce his thirst for revenge.
Anthony BellAnd pray also for me.
Anthony BellMay I gain the strength and energy that will let me overcome the temptation to voluntary suicide, to which I am told I will be exposed in my next incarnation.
MediumCan an obsessing spirit really drive a person to suicide?
Mediums’ GuideCertainly.
Mediums’ GuideObsession is itself a kind of trial, and it can take many forms.
Mediums’ GuideBut that is no excuse for the act.
Mediums’ GuideHuman beings always keep their free will.
Mediums’ GuideThey are free to resist or to give in to the suggestions they are exposed to.
Mediums’ GuideWhen they give in, they still do so by their own will.
Mediums’ GuideThe spirit is right, however, in saying that the one who does wrong under another's influence is less blameworthy and less punished than the one who does wrong by his own impulse.
Mediums’ GuideBut he is not cleared of all responsibility.
Mediums’ GuideIf he can be turned away from the right path, it shows he is not yet firmly grounded in goodness.
MediumIf Bell's prayers and repentance had freed him from the sight of his victim, why was he still pursued by the revenge of the obsessing spirit in his last incarnation?
Mediums’ GuideRepentance, as you know, is only the clear beginning of restoration.
Mediums’ GuideIt does not by itself free the guilty person from the results of wrongdoing.
Mediums’ GuideGod does not settle for promises.
Mediums’ GuideThe one who repents must prove by actions how real the return to goodness is.
Mediums’ GuideThat is why the spirit is subjected to new trials on Earth.
Mediums’ GuideThey strengthen good resolutions and increase merit if the spirit comes through them victoriously.
Mediums’ GuideHe remains exposed to attacks from lower spirits until they feel that he is strong enough to resist.
Mediums’ GuideWhen that happens, they leave him alone, because they know their attempts would be useless.
Kardec says this case shows how the same trial can return across successive lives until the spirit becomes strong enough to overcome it. It also shows how the memory of a former crime may remain as remorse, warning, or obsession. Punishment is not revenge from God, but a means of moral progress.